On Saturday April 18,2008, the opening day of the Spring Rockfish/Striped Bass season I flew from the top of the Chesapeake at the Susquehanna Flats almost all the way down the bay to the Maryland Virginia line, making our turn to head back home at the Cove Point (aka the gas docks). What we witnessed was an incredible sight of the Chesapeake Bay filled with fishing boats chasing the elusive monster spring striped bass. It was an amazing sight. The pictures tell some of the story, but even they do not do the incredible amount of boats we saw justice. I shot over 500 aerial shots and a bunch of HD aerial video. Below are a sampling of some of the aerial photos. I will post more over the next two days as I get time to edit them. All the pictures are geocoded, however it was hard to be able to show you them in that format, so I took my handy Spot GPS tracker up and our entire trip is mapped as the last picture so you can see our route. Enjoy the sights.

* You can click on the photos and they will pop up in a new window. Each photo is 1200 pixels wide.
**Please note that all the photos are copyright of Brandon White and may not be used with out his express written permission.

The picture below is a view looking north up the Susquehanna River. Havre De Grace is on the left below the first bridge and extending left. The Rt95 bridge is the far bridge in the background. When you enlarge the photo by clocking on it you will see all the boats at the top of the flats easier.

The aerial picture below is a view looking northeast across the Susquehanna Flats. The point in the upper right is Carpenter’s Point. Amazing how clear the water was on Saturday.

The aerial picture below is looking north east at the top of the Susquehanna Flats. It’s easy to see where the flats start from this picture.

The aerial picture below is looking back at the same boats as in the above picture.  The actual flats really light up from about 700ft.

The aerial picture below is looking east across the Susquehanna Flats. The cluster of boats you see are bass boats from the Bass Masters tournament this past weekend I presume.
Havre De Grace is almost directly behind us in this shot and we are about right over the hospital at the top of the flats.

The aerial picture below is looking right down the Susquehanna Flats from the top middle of the flats. The boats will become more apparent when you click the picture to see a larger version. Look in the upper left quadrant of the picture, there must have been a good striper bite there from the looks of all the fishing boats.

The aerial picture below is looking southwest from the top of the Susquehanna Flats. The point in the right hand portion of the picture is Sandy Point, the lower most point allowed to be fished during the Susquehanna Flats Catch and Release Season.

The aerial picture below is a closer up version of the view above. Sandy Point is in the upper middle of the picture.

The aerial picture below is looking southeast from the middle of the flats at about 600ft with the lens zoomed out to try and get as much of a view as I could. Turkey Point is in the upper left of the photo.

The aerial picture below is looking south at the middle of the of Bay Bridges. The picture really does not do it justice to how many boats there were down there.

The aerial picture below is looking southwest a the eastern span on the Bay Bridge basically in the area of the sewer pipe.

The aerial picture below is looking west at the Bay Bridges. It was hard to capture how many boats there really were from this angle because of the sun’s direction and the restricted air space that they would not let us in which extends out from DC.  We also were dealing with Bay Bridge airport traffic. Thought it was a cool shot of the bridges though.

The aerial picture below is looking north from south of the Bay Bridge.  When you click to see the larger version of the picture you will see a ton of boats in the upper right who were trolling the eastern channel edge all the way up to Love Point.

The aerial picture below is looking north from south of the  Bay Bridge at the eastern side of the Bay Bridges.  I zoomed in from the same area as the above to get a closer view.

Aerial picture below is taken from just about above the actual bloody point and that is Bloody Point Light House you see. You are looking west across the Chesapeake. The area was a total zoo full of fishing boats which hopefully you can tell from the picture.

The lower Maryland Chesapeake was probably the hardest to shoot. There were a ton of boats fishing mostly on the eastern shore side, or eastern side of the channel. The islands you see in the upper right are James Island and you are looking northeast up the bay. I have more pictures of this area which I will work on and post some more pictures.

The below is a screen shot of our entire trip as tracked by my Spot tracking device.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of opening day of Rockfish Season 2009. More pictures to come, I will try and post a few each day.
Please note that all the photos are copyright of Brandon White and may not be used with out his express written permission.

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